Paloma Laguens/IDACOR CONICET/Museo de Antropologas UNCThis 1,000-year-old statuette is just one of the many artifacts left behind by this previously-unknown population in present-day Argentina.A new analysis of prehistoric and ancient DNA has revealed a previously-unknown Indigenous group that lived in central Argentina for roughly 8,500 years.The early history of human settlement in the southern tip of South America had long remained mysterious. By the time humans first occupied the region about 12,000 years ago, it was one of the last locations on Earth to be populated.Now, the discovery of this new Indigenous lineage begins to fill in a gap in researchers understanding of who was living in present-day Argentina thousands of years ago.Uncovering A Previously-Unknown Population That Flourished In Prehistoric ArgentinaStephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff PhotographerHarvard Universitys David Reich, one of the 68 co-authors of the new study.Previous studies had identified three separate Indigenous groups in the area throughout the prehistoric era: one in the central Andes, another in the tropical lowlands of Amazonia, and a third in Patagonia. Until now, it was unclear who, if anyone, was living in central Argentina.A new study published in Nature, put together by 68 co-authors across the world, used DNA analysis to identify a different Indigenous group that appeared in South Americas central Southern Cone about 8,500 years ago.Scientists analyzed the DNA, primarily bones and teeth, from 310 prehistoric and ancient people whose remains date as far back as 10,000 years. The genetic material gathered for this study has increased the amount of prehistoric and ancient DNA data from the region more than ten-fold.This part of the world was almost a blank spot on the map, David Reich, senior author of the study and professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, told the Harvard Gazette. Like most of South America, there was very little data.Wikimedia CommonsCueva de las Manos in Santa Cruz, Argentina, one of the few significant prehistoric archaeological sites in the region.Likewise, very few archaeological sites from the prehistoric era exist in this region. The Cueva de las Manos, or the Cave of the Hands, in central Argentina is one rare example of such a site. The caves prehistoric artwork was made between 13,000 and 9,500 years ago.Its assumed that the people who made the cave paintings were ancestors to the hunter-gatherers that European colonizers came across thousands of years later and they may be connected to the population uncovered by the new study.A Resilient Indigenous Population That Kept To Itself For Thousands Of YearsBefore the discovery of this new Indigenous lineage, scientists analyzing the DNA first expected to learn more about migration patterns in prehistoric South America. Instead, they found a group that persisted for thousands of years that did not migrate, and instead mostly kept to themselves, only barely mixing with other Indigenous groups at the edges of their homeland.Finally, the new study shows that the archaeogenetic trail of this lineage ended at around 1800 C.E., though the genetic line still exists in some forms in the DNA of modern Argentinians. It is likely the main Indigenous American lineage in Argentina today.Paloma Laguens/IDACOR CONICET/Museo de Antropologas UNCAnother artifact, also about 1,000 years old, made by a member of the newly-identified Indigenous group.There is still much that scientists have yet to discover about the newly-identified Indigenous lineage. For instance, its unclear why exactly the population primarily kept to themselves.There are no geographical features in the region that wouldve prevented groups from interacting. Meanwhile, the newly-found population was able to endure environmental challenges like droughts, technological advancements, and the introduction of new languages.This is unusual compared with similar findings in prehistoric Europe and Asia. In many of those populations, things like droughts or the introduction of a new language prompted migration and intermixing and thus led to some sort of change in the genetic lineage.In this region you have a diversity of language and diversity of cultural changes, and you see interactions with other groups in the archaeological evidence, co-author Rodrigo Nores told Science Magazine. But the population is the same.Researchers believe that future studies with more samples from underrepresented communities may help to shed light on the lack of migration and interaction with other groups. Scientists hope to fill in more gaps in the timeline of prehistoric South America, a timeline that had been almost completely shrouded in mystery until now.After reading about the discovery of this previously-unknown Indigenous group in Argentina, learn about the ancient Siberian population that scientists believe could be the ancestors of Native Americans. Then, read about the 20,000-year-old genetic link that scientists discovered between Indigenous Brazilians and Australians.The post Scientists Just Discovered A Previously-Unknown Indigenous Population That Lived In Isolation In Argentina For 8,500 Years appeared first on All That's Interesting.